Robin visited Tanglin Trust School en route from Vietnam to New Zealand on Saturday, 27th June and as he left in 1980, like the rest of Singapore, Tanglin was completely unrecognisable to him.

Robin taught at Tanglin Preparatory School from 1976 to 1980. At that time Tanglin Prep was located in a large black and white house "Matheran” at the junction of Jervois

Road and Tanglin Road, the site currently occupied by the Brunei High Commission.

Raeburn Park School originally opened in 1954 for expatriate children and Weyhill School opened in Portsdown Road in the early 1970’s to cater for the children on the enormous waitlist for Tanglin Prep and Raeburn Park (some things don’t change!). In 1976 Raeburn Park relocated to Portsdown Road to share the same site as Weyhill School and it wasn’t until 1981, after Robin had left, that the decision was made to amalgamate all three schools Tanglin Prep, Weyhill and Raeburn Park at Portsdown Road.

However, Robin’s sons, Crispian and Lee, attended Weyhill and so he was familiar with the Portsdown Road site, it’s just that it has completely changed since that time!

Robin had lots of memories to share from his teaching years at Tanglin Prep. He and his best mate Richard Hughes (also a Tanglin Prep teacher) started an annual trip to Taman Negara for the students. They took a group on a sea journey to Brunei where they billeted all the students and teachers at the Brunei International School and they also organised a school trip even further afield to Sri Lanka. With other staff members he also took groups to Sabah to climb Mt Kinabalu. The ages of the students on these school trips were 9 and 10 year olds!

Robin was also a founding member and captained a cricket team for teachers and parents from Tanglin Prep, Weyhill and Raeburn Park called the Tanglin Taverners. In the first year of playing together all their matches were just friendlies but in the second year they joined a local league and won it. They often played at the Singapore Cricket Club and they caused a protocol problem as no ladies were allowed on the verandah in those days but the scorer for the Tanglin Taverners was a teacher, Liz Dighton, from Weyhill. Consequently the Taverners quietly protested by having their tea and cucumber sandwiches in an area open to all.

When Robin left Tanglin Prep he had every intention of returning one day from New Zealand, but unfortunately circumstances prevented an opportunity from arising.

However, Robin has stayed in Education and he is currently International Director and Marketing Director for William Colenso College in Napier on the north island of New Zealand.

Robin was returning to New Zealand when he broke his journey to visit Tanglin from Vietnam where he was recruiting students to attend his college.

There are approximately 40 international students at William Colenso College. About 50% are from Europe and 50% from Asia. Robin’s role is to encourage international students to select his college and then to provide pastoral care once they are enrolled as students of the college. His college gained the award for the Best Outdoor Educational School Programme in New Zealand in 2007.

It was great to meet Robin and to hear his memories of Tanglin from the late 1970’s. If you also have memories of this time, please do write in and share these with us and we can include these on the website too.